The present invention generally relates to the treatment of pathological neoformations. More specifically, the present invention relates to a method and device for carrying out the method of thromboses formation by means of shock waves.
Processes are known which destroy kidney stones in living bodies by means of shock waves. Such processes are generally based on the physical principle that when shock waves act upon interfaces at which the acoustic impedance changes nonuniformly, they are reflected as pressure waves or tensile waves according to the acoustic characteristics of the interfaces. If the compressive or the tensile strength of the material is exceeded during this treatment, the material is mechanically destroyed. For disintegrating kidney stones, focusing methods have been used wherein as the shock waves are passed through the tissue, the stress on the tissue is maintained at low levels. Furthermore, by utilizing such focusing methods, high concentrations of energy in the area of the kidney stone are achieved.
It is also known that if instead of a kidney stone, there is healthy tissue in the focus of the shock wave, this tissue can be destroyed by the shock wave. It has been suggested that this effect be used for destroying benign tumors since with such tumors there is no danger of metastases occurring. In the case of malignant tumors, however, although the cancer cells can be destroyed by this method, a large portion of the surrounding healthy tissue must also be destroyed in order to avoid the formation of metastases. Furthermore, there is also the danger of cells which have been only partially destroyed metastasizing by starting to proliferate on the spot or by being transferred by the blood stream to other parts of the body.